Cooking tips when you're feeling poorly

JIL

I know how you feel I was in the same situation as you a couple of years ago. I would sit at the laptop and do an online order and the delivery would arrive and I couldnt even put all the stuff away I was so weak!! I would do a few bits, sit down, feel sick, get up and do a bit more.

I wanted to get back to normal and by doing a few little things it made me feel better both mentally and physically.

I couldnt eat and had a feeding tube, but wanted to do a few bits for my husband (he was doing everything, housework, washing, as well as working full time and looking after me)

I often made a sausage casserole, chicken casserole, beef stew etc and served with jacket potatoes that cooked in the oven at the same time. Lamb hot pot etc.

I often sat down with a potato peeler and knife and prepared the veg, used a packet casserole mix and just put it all in a casserole dish.

Chilli con carne can be made like this, just throw the mince, chopped mushrooms, chopped onion, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans, and the packet of casserole mix into the casserole dish. Serve with a jacket potato.

Hope you are feeling better soon, the treatment really does take it out of us.

Blackpool_Saver

Just want to send hugs and wishes for a speedy recovery

Gigervamp

Thanks for that link bitsandpieces, I hadn't checked out the Macmillan site for a while.

zzzLazyDaisy I'd love that lentil recipe, it sounds nice.

newlywed

Can you do (or supervise) things like chicken breast wrapped in bacon with roast veg? Not too much prep and just a bit of checking for done, but still feels like proper food.

Chicken breasts bashed flatter with red pesto and cheese is lovely (like chicken pizza).

Or fish fillets and things you place on a tray with tinned or frozen veg.

bitsandpieces

Also worth mentioning that your Occupational Therapy service should be able to supply a suitable stool - if it would be helpful to have something to sit on in the kitchen

heavenleigh

Fish fillets are really simple and tasty, salmon/cod/haddock (anything really) simply placed on a piece of tinfoil, drizzled with olive oil and a grind of salt and pepper.
Loosely fold foil into a pouch and pop in the oven. Done in around 15 mins, no fancy prep, serve with new potatoes and pre-prepared veg.

Hope you feel better soon xx

zzzLazyDaisy

Gigervamp wrote: »

zzzLazyDaisy I'd love that lentil recipe, it sounds nice.

Your wish is my command :-)

The recipe is 1 cup/mug lentils to 3 cups stock. The size of the cup doesn't matter, just the 1 part lentils to 3 parts liquid.

Soak 1 cup green lentils in water overnight. Next day, rinse and drain.

To make:
Sweat down a chopped onion or two with 2 or 3 pressed cloves of garlic (vary amounts to suit your taste) in a little butter or olive oil.
Stir in soaked green lentils and cook with the oinions and garlic for 3-5 mins
Add a can of chopped tinned tomatoes (herby ones are nice), and a squirt of tomato puree if you have it in.
Add stock cubes to 3 cups of hot water to make stock and add to pan, stirring to combine ingredients.

Bring gently to boil and simmer gently for about 20 mins (the lentils should be soft and a sort of porridge consistency - looks a bit like minced beef stew.

Add salt to taste if needed.

Note - do not allow it to burn or stick to the bottom of the pan, as that tastes foul :A

To serve - you can sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon cumin over it before serving if liked.

Or serve with a big dollop of natural yogurt or fromage frais (yum)

Or serve with lemon wedges on the side to squeeze into the dish (also yum, in a different way!).

Serve with crusty bread and salad, or rice, or pasta.

You can even make a veggie shepherds pie by putting mash potato on the top and a handful of grated cheese and banging it in the oven.

Leftovers make lovely mercimek soup, just by blitzing with a hand blender and warming through. Serve with cumin, yog, or lemon.

This dish is good because it easily breaks down into stages, so you can cook the onions and garlic and lentils together in advance and just leave it on the stove till you are ready to do the next bit. Also it is lovely made the day before and left in the fridge for the flavours to develop.

(I am hungry now )

Bennifred

Now's the time for your DD and DS to try out some new recipes! Even if they plan/buy for just one new meal each (maybe at a weekend?) it would help! I get my (grown-up) boys to do this when I'm not feeling up to cooking. It makes life more interesting........:p

PasturesNew

Here's a simple recipe you can supervise others to cook:

Lobbing a load of stuff into an ovenproof dish works fine. e.g. chop up and lob in some onions, peppers, chillies, tomatoes (halved/quartered depending on size) and some sausages (raw or frozen, meat or veggie). You can cut the bangers up into pieces before or after cooking, or not at all. Lob in some splashes of stuff you have/like, (I had/liked a splash of tomato ketchup with chilli). Lob in a splash of oil stuff/similar. Wiggle it all about, cover with foil and lob it in the oven at "the usual temperature" for cooking things (e.g. 200 degrees) ... look/stir after 20 minutes, 30 minutes ... you'll see when it's ready. When it looks cooked, but you think it needs a bit more browning, remove the foil for 10 minutes.

When it looks about right lob onto a plate. Scoff. Also good with chips, or rice, or whatever you think goes well with it (even a fat lump of nice bread).

zzzLazyDaisy

PasturesNew wrote: »

Here's a simple recipe you can supervise others to cook:

Lobbing a load of stuff into an ovenproof dish works fine. .

Yayyy! Thank you PN, my sort of recipe :-)